It’s About the Ice!
Kaleidoscope, by Berni Steinbach
ICE ~ When the naturalist John Muir wrote, “the whole universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty,” he captured a sentiment not unlike the impression Lake Erie ice makes upon those who venture out in freezing temperatures.
PiBDaily was joined by photographer Lyla Steidl, 11th-grader at Put-in-Bay School, in today’s adventure.
Ice formations bewilder and captivate; perhaps foremost they generate a new connection to our environment–a fresh sense of being in a world so often belabored by dramatic tensions.
Ice photographer Ryota Kajita explains, “Wandering
around looking for ice reminds me of boyhood treasure hunting. Photographing ice is rooted in those childhood adventures. It’s in that spirit I strive to know the environment on a deeper level.”
The contemporary writer Maria Popova, who publishes an inspiring Blog entitled the marginalian, references creation stories and artistic wonders as products of “water as a portal to transcendence.”
Indeed, the magic of oceans, mountain streams, ponds, lakes and “great” lakes propels us all beyond the asphalt pathways which tend to govern our lives.
Ice showcases nature’s uncanny, dynamic attributes, and these can do much to inspire. Poets as different as Robert Frost, Wallace Stevens, and Edmund Spencer apply metaphorical connections to ice. Sadly, cruelty, indifference, and rigidity often creep into our associations.
In Lyla’s photo on the right, one sees friends frozen in time.
When viewed apart from human notions, ice becomes an elemental object which shapes our environmental perception–whether dreamy or real.
